


The Brother in the walls

by Kittiarta



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Clone Trooper Cadets (Star Wars), Gen, Kaminoans Being Assholes (Star Wars), Planet Kamino (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:40:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29489196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kittiarta/pseuds/Kittiarta
Summary: There is a brother who lives in the walls, and the cadets know how to call him.Knock, knock, knock, knock, tapKnock, knock, knock, knock, tap
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	The Brother in the walls

Knock  
knock  
knock  
knock  
tap

Knock  
knock  
knock  
knock  
tap

They all recognize the pattern, even if they don't acknowledge it. It's dangerous to mention him in front of the longnecks. He makes them angry. 

Only the Alphas know why, and they won't tell. Say it's not something they should know. Say it'll give them too much hope.

Knock  
knock  
knock  
knock  
tap

Knock  
knock  
knock  
knock  
tap

The younger cadets can call him. One repetition for a distraction, Two for a scare. Three for it's safe to talk. He talks to them as well, tells them stories. Stories he's heard from the trainers when they thought nobody else was around. Stories the Prime tells his son, when the tapping of the rain against the walls sounds a little too much like footsteps. 

There's another one, but there usually isn't enough warning to use it. Four repetitions means "keep me safe". Four repetitions means nobody will see that brother again. Four repetitions means "take me somewhere that is not here". Only the Alphas know why. They still aren't telling.

Knock  
knock  
knock  
knock  
tap

Knock  
knock  
knock  
knock  
tap

Sometimes things go missing. A spare blaster here, a ration bar there. The kaminoans say it's the gizkas. Say the pests got into the food. The kaminoans say it's the Prime and his son. Say they too, are training as warriors.

They pretend not to notice the wrappers, carefully folded in a way the hands of a gizka could never do. They pretend not to notice the returned blasters, set to stun and with one side of the grip more worn than the other.

Knock  
knock  
knock  
knock  
tap

Knock  
knock  
knock  
knock  
tap

The Kaminoans pretend that they do not fail. They bury their failures in a watery grave and scare the successes into silence. They pretend they do not hear the tapping in the walls at night. They pretend it does not keep them awake.

That does not mean they do not fail. That does not mean that the successes do not know. The Alphas still speak of their second-to-last. They still refuse to say why. The others still speak of the ones who escaped, who told the brother-in-the-walls that they would be taken away. They still refuse to let the longnecks know.

Knock  
knock  
knock  
knock  
tap

Knock  
knock  
knock  
knock  
tap

When the Jedi end the decommissioning, the brother-in-the-walls disappears. If the Alphas will not tell that the only number they are missing is 99, then that is their business. If the cadets are aware 99's stories sound like nothing the clones have ever known, but like the words of the outside and freedom, then that is their business. If the kaminoans pretend that they stop losing items then finding them again, then that is their business. If 99 appeared when the brother-in-the-walls went away, then that is his business.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so, it must have been obviously early on 99 wasn't going to be a soldier. So like, what if the Kaminoans wanted to decommission him, but he escaped. Also 99 is an alpha arc in this because why not


End file.
